Illogic: Forbidden Fruit
by januaryfreeze92
Summary: Part of the Illogic Series, following Illogic: Some Day Soon. Nyota finds their senior yearbook and finally makes the move that Bones has been hesitant to make. Nyota Uhura x Leonard Bones McCoy


**Hey, guys!**

**A new installment in the Illogic series. This series is called Illogic simply because Spock found it logical to go to New Vulcan and get married, thus allowing all that will happen in the series to happen. :) This one is pretty short, but it wouldn't really fit into the longer installment that I'm planning... But hey, at least it's a little bit of story for you to read.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Star Trek, only the story/series. Do not steal!**

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Nyota tapped her black-cherry fingernails against the clean, white table as she looked down at the holo she had pulled off of her shelf earlier that day. The cover page read "Class of 2258", the words covering a black and white picture that our senior class was forced to take on the common lawn. Of course, it was hard to distinguish all of the faces from so far off, but she zoomed into where she could see her small group of friends standing together. Gaila, herself, Christine, and Janice smiled, some in mid laugh, while Jim's hand was in the shape of a V over a sour-looking McCoy's head. She could see Pavel and Sulu, arms around eachothers' shoulders comradely. She laughed softly, flipping the digital page with a swipe of her finger.

"What are you looking at, Ny?" Christine asked her, pulling out the chair next to her. The Rec Room was filled with off-duty Enterprise Personnel who decided to end their day with board games, reading, chatting, and the entertainment of watching Sulu try to teach Chekov how to fence.

"I found our yearbook," she responded with a smile, her eyes still glued to the digitally rendered page in wonder.

"Most likely to succeed, Nyota Uhura," Christine read with a laugh, "Best hair, Janice Rand."

"Most likely to drop out, Jim Kirk. Biggest flirt, Gaila Enthial'e," Nyota followed with a grin, "It all seems like a life time ago, doesn't it?"

The nurse smiled sadly while she nodded in agreement. "It kinda was," she muttered before stating, in an attempt to lighten the mood, "Grumpiest, Leonard McCoy."

"It doesn't say that!"

They laughed again, drawing some attention to them. A small group had formed and watched as Nyota flipped the page, as if looking through a portal to the past. As she looked at the pictures before her, she realized that they would never see a lot of these people again. There was a picture of that sweet girl - Ellen, she later remembered - playing her guitar on the lawn during a free period, and there was one of that guy that she never really talked to in her phonology class in his football uniform, holding up a football victoriously after their first win of the season. She pressed play on one of the various media clips and the people around her laughed upon witnessing the memories that played out before them.

"Aw, look at Jim as a baby!" Janice cooed when they reached the "Now and Then" section and everyone laughed.

"Chekov looks no different than he does now," one of the yeomen pointed out, causing the girls to giggle again, although he pouted and crossed his arms indignantly.

"I never saw the point in those damn things," a gruff voice said. Nyota turned to see Leonard pouring himself a mug of coffee, leaning against one of the tables.

"Well, it's a great way of remembering. I mean, a lot of these kids gave up their lives in the hope of saving a helpless planet from the Narada. They can now kind of live on through here," she told him, looking at the picture of her Chorale Ensemble. She, as president, stood in the middle of the huddled students. She could remember everyone of their names.

Leonard sipped at his coffee, he too remembering the students she spoke of. Entire crews were wiped out by Nero, never to be seen again. Even so, he couldn't give up his grudge against yearbooks. He pulled the chair out from beside her, eyeing the crowd that was previously gathered around Nyota. They were now watching as Chekov and Sulu sparred - he could tell that their helmsman was going easy on the boy.

"You know, you never even signed mine," she told him off-handedly, and he looked at her in disbelief.

"Yes I did."

"Did not," she countered.

His brow furrowed as he tried to remember back to that day when they had all received their yearbooks. The way that they all marched down the isle in their graduation gowns - a small fraction of the students who were supposed to be moving on. He had picked up hers while she was busy speaking to a teacher who felt the need to express his pride in her. Leonard swore it was hers he had picked up that day, writing the passage that had made him hate yearbooks from then on.

"Well, I'll be damned," he muttered with a groan, and she looked at him in confusion.

"I signed Tracey Stone's, not yours!"

_To the most beautiful girl in Star Fleet -_ he remembered writing, probably the reason the rude, revolting girl decided to pretty much stalk him after that. It was before he had learned about her and the stonefaced jerkoff.

She laughed, the sound wafting through his head like bells in the distance. "What did you write to her? She followed you like the plague for weeks!"

He hesitated, looking down into his coffee for confidence. "You know what, it doesn't matter."

_Chicken shit,_ his mind berated him, but he simply shook his head, standing up once more. Nyota looked up at him, confusion in her eyes.

"You okay?" she asked him, standing up as well. She could hear cheering behind them when Chekov advanced on Sulu, causing the two best friends to laugh in camaraderie.

"I'm just an old fart who needs his sleep."

"You're not old," Nyota told him knowingly, but watched as he tried to escape her company. She sighed, following him out the door until she was able to corner him in a place they wouldn't be overheard.

"Leonard," she called after him, not sure if she was doing the right thing. He turned around, obviously surprised she was following her. He began to speak, but she held a single finger to his lips.

"I'm tired of everyone handling me like I'm made of glass. I am stronger than a good amount of the personnel on this ship. If I'm wrong in my assumption, so be it - we don't have to speak of it again, but," she pressed her lips to his chastely, an action that managed to send small bolts of electricity through his frame. His hands slipped down to hold her hips and her eyes fluttered shut as her chest pressed dangerously close to his. "I'm not asking you to be the rebound guy, Leonard," she whispered, her mouth so close to his ear that the breath from her words caused a shiver to run down his spine.

He pressed his cheek to hers, reveling in the warm contact for a moment before allowing her to back away. "I'll see you tomorrow, then?" she said a little unsurely, suddenly made nervous by his lack of enthusiasm. She brushed her knuckles along his high cheek bone before turning around, not allowing her shoulders to sag until she was safely out of sight.

- - -

"Three days? What do you mean you haven't talked to her in three days? Do you have any idea how long three days is in girl time?" the Captain exclaimed, looking down at Doctor McCoy who just grumbled in response from where he was sitting in front of his desk.

"Bones, you've liked her since our second year at Star Fleet. What's so wrong with getting what you want, for once? I mean, did she do something?"

"Of course not!"

"Well, did you do anything?"

He sighed, resting his elbows on his desk. "Jim, you just don't get it. I don't want to be the rebound guy," he told him, thumbing through holos and PADDs stacked on his desk distractedly.

The younger man gave him a look, crossing to press his palms against the desk, trying to grab his friends attention. "Didn't she say that that's _exactly_ what she didn't want? Bones, she wants you, and a hell of a lot more than she'd want just a rebound guy!"

"Goddammit, Jim, they're all the same. I thought the same thing when - "

"What the hell did Uhura do to make you think about your ex wife? How is she like her at all? And don't you say she has a vag and boobs, because that is just way too obvious."

Leonard rolled his eyes, knowing that only he would say that, resting his face in his hands. When he didn't say anything after a moment, Jim just shook his head. "This is what you've been wanting for the past two years. Don't throw it away, Bones."

With a last look at the good doctor, Jim crossed to the door, hoping that he would at least think about it. "Well, I have to go relieve the bridge. If I were you, I'd head to the Mess and talk to her."

Leonard just nodded, not watching as Jim closed the door behind him before abandoning all attempts at getting paperwork finished, knowing he wouldn't be able to work until he spoke to Nyota. He stood up and left his office in the direction of the Officer's Mess, both fearful and determined to get it over with.

Upon entering the Mess he looked around, expecting to see the object of his desires in the center of attention but, to his surprise, she sat in the corner of the Mess. Grateful that Gaila obviously hadn't arrived at lunch yet, he walked over to sit across from her, not bothering to grab a tray of food.

"I know I said I didn't want to be treated like glass, but that didn't mean I wanted to be treated like concrete," she said after a moment of twirling a bottle cap between her fingers. He looked down at the table shamefully.

"I didn't mean to - Things have been busy..."

"Save it, Leonard. I told you, we didn't have to mention it again," she said, her face flushed a little red with embarrassment. "I'm sorry, I just - I thought I was right. I'm sorry for putting you in that position."

He looked up at her, confusion written on his features.

"We can still be friends, can't we?"

His eyes widened. "You think I _didn't want that?_"

"Did you?"

His hand came to rest on hers, stilling the spinning bottle cap with a soft clang. "More than you'll ever know," he told her softly, his breath coming out in a soft _woosh_.

Nyota realized that he was being completely honest with her, all fortifications washed away by something unknown. She gently tilted her hand up, allowing their palms to meet and fingers to intertwine.

"Then what have you been doing these past few days?" she asked him teasingly, feeling her core start to warm again as her lips pulled up at the corners.

"Acting like a Goddamn pussy."

He squeezed her hand, finding a sudden confidence within him. "Nyota, I wanted - "

"Playing doctor... Doctor?" They heard a voice say to their left and looked up to see Gaila and Jim standing before the pair with knowing smiles.

"I am a Goddamn doctor, not a preschooler," he grumbled, releasing her hand from his grasp and averted his eyes from Nyota's captivating gaze. Because of this, he happened to miss her scowl of complete annoyance.

The two new additions laughed, sitting down at the table beside them. As they struck up a conversation, opting not to tease them about what they witnessed, Nyota passed Leonard her spare apple. To any onlookers, it may have looked simply like a kind gesture but, to them, it was much more than that - it was an opportunity, a peace offering of some kind.

He bit into it, wiping at the juices with his sleeve that stuck to his face and met her eyes once more, a hidden message conveyed in her sparkling gaze that only he could see.

His chance had finally come.

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**R&R**


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